Category: Environment

Not a single one of the ten members of Florida’s Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC) showed up for their twice-yearly “Regional Public Meeting” this week. Over 70 citizens went to the meeting to speak to the council during this rare chance to discuss State conservation projects with this group. Instead, citizens found themselves speaking into a mike facing a dais of empty seats where the ARC members would have sat — if they had come.

Now that Florida voters have overwhelmingly passed the Water & Land Conservation Amendment (Amendment 1), which restores the funding for our state to buy and protect environmental land, let’s take a look at the state’s list of proposed conservation projects … wait, what?! In the whole state-wide list of all the conservation land the state is considering for acquisition, throughout Florida’s 67 counties, Hillsborough is one of only 3 counties where the state lists NO proposed conservation projects.

The Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is finalizing a 10-year plan that would let nuisance plants like Brazilian pepper take over the Cockroach Bay Preserve State Park, destroying habitat and food sources for the imperiled species who live there … Please help by sending an email now.

UPDATE 4/12/13: Thanks to all who took action to oppose these bills and protect our nature preserves, both of these bills are effectively dead this session. Please join me in asking our legislators to...

Under pressure from developers and politicians to “streamline” (i.e. deregulate) growth management in Hillsborough County, a whole slew of changes (mostly deletions) are being proposed to Hillsborough County’s Comprehensive Plan. You can see all t…

Thanks to all who wrote letters opposing the rezoning of sensitive coastal wetlands on Tampa Bay next to E.G. Simmons Park, we’ve won an early victory!Heading into a buzz-saw of public opposition, the rezoning request has been changed to a more re…